Shaun Edwards will take over as Wigan Warriors head coach in 2020, after fulfilling his duties as the Wales defence coach at the Rugby World Cup next year.
Photograph: Stu Forster/Getty Images

Shaun Edwards will return to rugby league in 2020 as the Wigan head coach after fulfilling his commitments with Wales rugby union side following the World Cup next year.

Edwards, who played for Wigan from 1983 to 1997, has been widely linked with a return to league since Shaun Wane announced in May that he would be leaving the four-times Super League champions at the end of this season. Wane will join Scottish Rugby as a high-performance coach in 2019.

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With Edwards remaining in his role as the Wales defence coach until after the World Cup, the former Wigan scrum-half Adrian Lam will take the Warriors job on an interim basis for the 2019 season. The 47-year-old former Papua New Guinea coach may even return to the DW Stadium with his younger son, Lachlan, who is expected to join Wigan’s playing squad next year.

Edwards, 51, has never hidden his desire to return to rugby league, with his last involvement his final season as a player with London Broncos in 2000. He said this year: “I do have an ambition to be the first rugby head coach to win a championship in rugby union, as I did with Wasps in 2008, and then to do the same in rugby league.”

Edwards’s final months in rugby union will be spent working with the Wales national side, plus the Ospreys and Dragons on a part-time basis. Warren Gatland confirmed in May that Edwards would link up with the two Pro 14 regions, saying: “My understanding is Shaun is going to do some work with both.”